[Remind-Fans] The Apple Stance [warning: long]

[Detlef Steuer]

On Mon, 17 May 2010 22:54:28 -0400
Paul M Foster <paulf at quillandmouse.com> wrote:

> On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:22:30PM -0400, David F. Skoll wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'd like to explain my anti-Apple stance.  This will be long(-winded),
> > so feel free to skip it. :)
> > 
> > As a kid, I was always a tinkerer.  By about 12, I was fooling around
> > with electronic kits, home-made gunpowder, etc.  (Believe it or not, in
> > those days, the local drugstore delivered potassium nitrate AKA
> > saltpeter directly to our apartment, no questions asked!)
> > 
> > When I was about 14 years old, I bought a book on BASIC.  I didn't have
> > a computer, but I read the book and started writing programs anyway.
> > I wrote them with pencil and paper, and "ran" them in my head.  
> 
> OMG! I thought I was the only one who ever did that! I'm a little older,
> but my first experience was also with BASIC on a time-shared mainframe,
> connected to a teletype in my school via an acoustic modem (personal
> computers hadn't been invented yet). I liked the experience so much that
> over the years until I got my own computer, I learned and wrote programs
> in Fortran, APL, and a variety of other languages. I wrote them and ran
> them in my head; they'd never see the light of day on a real computer.

There are at least three in the world who did that stuff.
:-)

If I remember correctly I was a sixth grader when I saw a picture of a PET in 
warehouse catalogue. I was hooked. That was the thing Mr Spock liked.
Something was written there about "BASIC"  and our local book store had
a small booklet about it I could afford.  

The longest program I wrote years bevore getting my hand on a "Commodore
64" was a solver for "Rubik's Cube". It went well over 30 or 40
handwritten pages, correct linenumbers and even lots of GOSUB
subprograms for turning the cube's sides :-) 

Memories ... 

Later I discoverd the use of random generators and played around alot.

Well, and now I'm here, teaching  computer intensive
methods in statistics. The fun payed out. 

Back on topic: Well spoken David! I have an ongoing argument with the
apple guys over here about the consequences of Apple's politics. But
Apple has a status near a religion, so it is hard to argue. And if you
have to use an Apple and it freezes while you just try to surf
(happened to me at my brother in law's house), they look at you as if
you were doing some sabotage :-)

I was not, I swear!

Thank you for your thoughts
Detlef